Bal Thackeray hardens anti-Valentine's Day stand

Hardening his anti-Valentine Day posture, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Thursday declared that the party workers would vehemently oppose the 'rotten alien culture' represented by Western custom.

'What is this Valentine Day? In what way it is related to Indian culture? It is a rotten imported culture thriving on the neo-rich with easy money to squander,' he said in a front page comment in the party mouthpiece Saamna on Thursday.
 
Thackeray, who has been leading the moral brigade in attacking the Valentine's Day celebrations in Maharashtra, said under the garb of Valentine's Day the spoiled youth belonging to 'hi-fi' culture indulged in vulgarities.

The Sena chief said the whole exercise is also encouraged by commercial considerations of the mall culture and his 'sainiks' would continue to strongly oppose it.

Meanwhile, Akhil Bhartiya Maratha Mahasangh has also declared its opposition to Valentine's Day, saying the celebrations amounted to 'aping the Western culture' and tarnished the Maharashtrian ethos by spoiling the younger generation.

In a statement, the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti also announced that it was boycotting the celebrations, as the day symbolised 'a materialistic and immoral' lifestyle.

And even as the moral police stepped up its patrolling, florists and Valentine's day card sellers feared a drop in their business this year in the wake of an uneasy social atmosphere following MNS leader Raj Thackeray's arrest and release.